Ash Read
A collection of posts by Ash Read
A collection of 115 posts by Ash Read - Page 2
Our annual State of Social report will be coming out soon, and we need your help. Last year, more than 1,800 marketers shared their thoughts on social media marketing for our second annual report. And as 2019 is on the horizon, we’d love your help to make this year’s report even better! If you can spare a few minutes, we’d be keen to hear your thoughts on the current state of the social media industry. We anticipate it’ll take no longer than 3-5 minutes to complete. Click the ‘Start’ button b
When Tommy Williams was growing up in Austin Texas, he probably didn’t think his love for cooking and local farmers markets would lead to starting a nationally-recognized food brand. But that’s exactly what happened. Williams began to embrace his entrepreneurial spirit after college. As a graduate, he started selling a variety of salsas and spice mixes in local retailers — and this is where his passion for promoting a healthier way of eating really came to the fore. In 2014, Tommy’s Superfood
As a social media marketer, a big part of your job is to build awareness of your brand and drive conversions on various social channels. This could mean creating an engaging video for Facebook. Planning out and scheduling your tweets for the week. Writing a thought-provoking article for LinkedIn Pulse. The list goes on… You do all of this because you want to use the unique, native features of each channel to connect with your audience. You want everyone to have the best possible experience e
Social media marketers are always looking to uncover the “next big thing”, and as we head into 2019 personalized social media engagement is becoming the latest must-have strategy for businesses of all sizes. According to recent Epsilon research , 80 percent of consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers a persona
Today, we’re excited to launch, SocialChat by Buffer, a simple, free tool that enables visitors to start social media conversations on your website. Each and every day, people visit your website to learn more about your business. The problem is a large percentage of websites don’t really support visitors in helping them to find what they want. In reality, most website visits are simply ignored — that was excusable a couple of years back, but not so much now. People in 2018 don’t want to have
As the New Year approaches, many of us find ourselves in a reflective mood. And that’s exactly how JotForm founder, Aytekin Tank, felt as 2017 was drawing to a close. As he walked along the Embarcadero, one of the liveliest and most scenic areas in San Francisco, looking back on the year, he was a little zoned out to everything happening around him. Meditative. Introspective. Contemplative. He had many things to celebrate: JotForm had grown to a team of more than 130 people across the globe,
Today, Facebook has announced that it’s rolling out Facebook Stories Ads to advertisers globally. More than 300 million people use Facebook Stories and Messenger Stories every day. Since Snapchat debuted the Stories format back in 2013, it has taken over the social media landscape. Facebook first introduced the format to one of its properties in 2016 with the launch of Instagram Stories [https://buffer.com
Today we’re launching a short email series enabling anyone to understand the importance of vertical video, and how to get started with the format. The Stories format, first popularized by Snapchat, has changed the social media landscape. The format, which encourages users to share short, vertical videos and images has presented marketers, creators, and individuals with innovative, interactive storytelling experiences — and has spearheaded the vertical video revolution. More than one billion p
The last quarter of the year is always a busy one for marketers. Between October and the end of December, we have the holiday season, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and more. Each of these dates provides an opportunity for your business to connect with your audience and target customers. And though it might seem like there’s too much to keep on top of, with a bit of advance planning, it’s possible to ensure you don’t miss a beat in Q4. To help, we’ve put together this Q4 content calen
* Product design and innovation studio AJ&Smart has generated more than €2million from clients who first discovered it on social media. * Ninety percent of AJ&Smart’s new clients now come from social media referrals, replacing word-of-mouth as the #1 source of new business. * Social media has helped AJ&Smart’s client base to go global. It was a cold January morning in Berlin, Germany, and Jonathan Courtney was feeling a bit stuck. Nearly six years had passed since he founded design ag
LinkedIn now has more than 500 million users and if you want to reach business decision-makers, it could be the perfect place for you to market your business — especially with the addition of a new, personalized ad format. Introducing Dynamic Ads LinkedIn has released a new ad-type called Dynamic Ads . In the Dynamic Ads launch b
The greatest marketing campaigns are the ones that connect with us, inspire action and leave a lasting impact. Think Casey Neistat’s ‘Make It Count ‘ collaboration with Nike, Airbnb’s ‘Belong Anywhere ‘ or Patagonia’s ‘ Fighting for Public Lands ‘. Very few businesses ever achieve anything that connects with their audience like these campaigns. In fact,
Facebook has made some big changes to business Page s in order to better support small and local businesses. Over 80 million businesses use Facebook Pages, with more than 1.6 billion people around the world are connected to them. And each week, two out of three people on Facebook visit a local business Page or an Event P
Too busy to read? Just click the play button below to listen to Hailley and Brian discuss the Instagram algorithm on our podcast. How to listen: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud [https://soundcloud.com/the-science-of-social-media/instagram-igtv-television-for-the-mobile-generati
Too busy to read? Just click the play button below to listen to this post. Facebook, as a platform, is barely recognizable from the social network that launched to connect Harvard University students in February 2004. And looking ahead, the Facebook of five years from now is highly unlikely to resemble the product that 2.2 billion people use every month right now. That’s no bad thing. If Facebook is to thrive over the next 5, 10, 15+ years, it’ll need to evolve. Here’s where we think it’s
Instagram has released a new way for users to easily share feed posts to stories. More than 300 million users now use Instagram stories daily and this update will enable them to share any post from their Instagram feed directly to stories. In the feature’s launch blog post Instagram explained : When you come across something in feed that inspires you — like a post from
Lead generation is an important task for any marketing department. And for most companies lead generation means focusing on creating lead capture forms and driving traffic back to those forms. But that’s not the only way to generate new leads for your business. Nowadays, social media content can play an integral role in lead generation for businesses of all sizes. But how does someone go from viewing a piece of content on Facebook to making a purchase? Look no further than the NFL’s Miami
F8 is one of the most important conferences of the year for the social media world. And over the past couple of days, Facebook has announced a ton of huge updates for its suite of products including Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, Oculus, and more. With so much going on, and so many updates and launches, it can be hard to keep up with. So with F8 2018 in the history books, we thought it’d be useful to recap some of the most important announcements Facebook made during its flagship co
F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference, returns this week (May 1 and 2) in San Jose, CA at the McEnery Convention Center. F8 offers developers, marketers, and anyone with a keen interest in the future of social media, a glimpse into what’s ahead for Facebook in both the short and long-term. Last year, Facebook wowed onlookers with a range of eye-catching VR features, Messenger updates, and camera upgrades. So what’s ahead for this year’s conference? Recap: Check out our full F8 2017 rundo
As Instagram has grown it’s become an integral marketing channel for more than 5 million businesses worldwide 3Instagram business blog , September 2017. But as a busy social media manager, it can be difficult to find the time to consistently post to Instagram. This is where scheduling comes in. Learning how to schedule Instagram posts is one of the biggest time savers and productivity hacks for social media managers to
If you want to be successful on Facebook, you’ll need more than just incredible content. In fact, Facebook marketing success is as much about distribution as it is content. Especially as organic reach in Facebook’s News Feed continues to decline for many Pages. So how do you get your Facebook content in front of more people? And not just any people, the right people — your target audience. In 2018, many businesses are turning to Facebook ads as a way to boost the performance of their content.
We’ve just launched out 2019 State of Social report: Check out the latest social media data, and learnings here. What’s in store for the social media industry in 2018? The way consumers use social media channels is constantly evolving and as marketers and entrepreneurs, we need to adapt to these changes. To better understand these changes, plus what’s ahead for 2018 and beyond we teamed up with Social Media Week to collect data from over 1,700 marketers and create the State of Social Media 20
“How did you get into marketing?” At Buffer, members of our marketing team are often asked this question. And the truth is, the path looks different for each of us: * Alfred was in the army * Arielle was a health coach * Kevan, our Marketing Director, was a sports reporter But for those of you out there who want to start a career in marketing or maybe build from where you are in 2018, we’d love to help you figure out: * How can you transition from your current role into marketing? * Wha
When you hear the term ‘stock photo’, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? My hunch is it’s probably a photo of a group of friends awkwardly laughing, business people staring at charts on a wall, or something along those lines. Probably not the best connotations, right? Used correctly, though, free stock photos can really bring your ads, blog posts, and content to life. And at Buffer, we use stock photos daily. Here’s why: * Stock photos are cost effective (mostly free ?) * If you